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News for the week of 13-Jul-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

To honor Tony Geary’s (Luke) many decades on GH, ABC Daytime will put up a 28-year video retrospective beginning July 13, accessible on the ABC.com website. The actor leaves the show July 27.

Sadly, head writer Ron Carlivati and his writing team weren’t going to bring Elizabeth and Jason’s little boy Jake back from the dead at all — but then Tony Geary (Luke) needed an exit story worthy of his many Emmys, right? Here’s what Carlivati revealed for Soap Opera Digest online July 10. We “were trying to come up with a purpose behind this adventure and a lasting impact for this adventure and something that would have emotional resonance for Luke and also, obviously, have a big impact on the rest of the canvas, so as much as it was an exit story, it was also the start of a story for other people… We had to pull out a bag of tricks and go to our go-to person, Helena Cassadine, for help, and made it work.” Soap Opera Digest hits the newsstands with the hard copy of its latest edition, offering more details about this Jake resurrection.

Jonathan Jackson’s (Lucky) busy as a leading man on the hit ABC primetime drama, Nashville, so he could only turn in four episodes for his GH return. But he and the writers made all four of those episodes count. It took some schedule-maneuvering, as he explained to TV Line’s Kimberly Roots for a July 6th report. “It was definitely tricky. We looked at the amount of work I was going to try to accomplish on [GH] and then figure out how much I could do in a short period of time. We had a few days off of touring, and I flew to L.A. and I took my daughter with me so we could spend some time together. I did what was probably a week’s worth of work in two days. It was a whirlwind. But it was so fun to see everyone. It was really exciting to get to do those scenes with Tony. It was really special for me.”

Working opposite his on-screen GH mom, Genie Francis (Laura), turned out to be a delightful surprise for Jackson. Because he hadn’t kept up with the soap opera, he said he only found out she was joining in on the fun “until maybe a week or so before I flew to L.A. I was so excited to see Genie and to get to work with her again. I don’t know, it’s hard to get the gist of the scenes without giving too much away… But we were able to find some moments to have some more heartfelt scenes which was something that [I was really] looking forward to. I was excited about that.”

Finola Hughes (Anna) returns to the set of GH a bit earlier than originally scheduled (September).

Gossip for the week of 13-Jul-2015

by Carol Banks Weber

Lante fans and GH purists have been brutal on Valerie this past week, because she happened to give in to Dante’s insistent seduction — a rebound from what he believed was his wife Lulu’s faithlessness. But wait, it could get worse for Valerie haters if it’s true that Dante knocks her up.

Based on media photos, Kelly Monaco (Sam) and Billy Miller (Jake/Jason) appear to be taking their on-screen connection off-screen. They were shot on the beach in Malibu in each other’s arms and laughing. Monaco may have even responded in a validating tweet about the pairing.

Viewers are loving my latest SoapHub commentary promoting Rebecca Herbst (Elizabeth) as the emotional touchstone of Jake’s return — not Tony Geary (Luke), Jonathan Jackson (Lucky), or Jason Morgan. Isn’t she the mom, after all?

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